4 
We have to go back to the Wars of Napoleon to witness the 
breaking up of Empires and the creation of new States on any- 
thing like the scale of last year. The Prussian victory over the 
French in 1870-1 consummated the federation of the separate 
German States into one German Empire, and the defeat of the 
Germans last year broke up that Empire into separate States again. 
I. think there is little doubt that the separate German States, 
possessing common interests, language and ideals, will coalesce, 
probably with the addition of Austria, into a United States of 
Germany, and if this is the right view it should make us all the 
more careful to look at our own position, to see that we do not 
lag behind in the march of Progress in Peace and War. 
We cannot build any hope that the War of 1914 will alter 
human ideas or change mankind, nor that the late war will be the 
last one; we can only hope to postpone such a calamity as long 
as possible. 
The change of the various types of Government in Europe 
into more Democratic and Socialistic forms, whether they prove 
permanent or not, must have an influence on our own National 
organisation and that of our allies. The War has shown many 
weak spots in our social organisation, and every citizen who has the 
welfare of his country at heart should study the matter so as to 
ascertain the causes and remedies and assist in carrying out urgently 
necessary reforms for the advancement, welfare, and happiness of 
the people. 
Democracy is the equality of the educated and uneducated, 
and the good and bad alike, and as all modern systems of govern- 
ment must ultimately come to the collective vote of the individual, 
Right, Justice, and Freedom will depend on the intelligence and 
judgment of the individual and everything that can elevate the 
mind and body will advance the State to these ideals, and the only 
means to attain these ends is a sound education not of the few 
but of the many, for by knowledge the Nation gains power while 
the uneducated is a danger to himself and a menace to the com- 
munity. 
Europe will always be the dominating factor in Peace and 
War, and it is to Europe we must look for the settlement of prob- 
lems between the Nations. Europe is by far the most complex 
of all the great divisions of the Earth, with about fifteen different 
languages, innumerable and increasing types and forms of re- 
ligion, -without any prospect of assimilation or agreement, and 
systems of government and politics still more numerous and 
unstable. Surely we see in these more than enough elements for 
misunderstanding and trouble, but when we go outside Europe we 
are faced with further problems in the various forms of language, 
religion, and polities. With all these perplexing differences we 
naturally look for some factor common to all nations, by which a 
